greysonchance:

Are you guys ready to see the album cover for ‘Hold On ‘Til The Night’?? You can help unlock it piece by piece by signing up for my mailing list! Keep checking back to see the cover before anyone else, and grab the widget below for your own blogs so you can share with your friends and help reveal the full cover faster! Can’t wait for you guys to see it(:

timezareweird:

WHY EVEN TRY live in CANNES, FRANCE

LE GRAND JOURNAL 

Several fast trips to NYC, two performances of Spider-Man on Broadway, late night and early morning global conference calls, a late afternoon and evening in the Chateau Marmont courtyard, and one very long day at the American Idol season finale.  

This is “Rise Above 1”, performed by Reeve Carney featuring Bono and The Edge. 

Couple notes on the Idol clip:

There was an amazing Bono-emerging-from-the-spider-web entrance that the show completely missed in the broadcast video edit;

The audio could have been mixed better and that version is coming soon. 

Official version of the song is here.  Music video, album, live performances and much more coming soon… 

Record Store Day and physical/digital music retail.  ”Free” (As A Bird?)

I’ve been thinking about my experience at Amoeba in LA on Saturday April 16th, aka Record Store Day.  

Bought the following:

- new TV on the Radio album (support the home team — at a weighted account no less)

- Used vinyl and CDs.  Mostly R.E.M.; I justify buying used because I bought them all new in the ’90s but lost them since

- a 7” vinyl copy of The Beatles’ Free As A Bird release from 1996.

Amoeba was also generous enough to include a bonus “surprise pack” of specialty vinyl and stickers.  One of these turned out to be a major score - an otherwise unreleased 7” of David Gray’s “Fugitive” recorded at Downtown Records.  I loved this song without knowing it, and upon hearing this, not only bought the single immediately on iTunes so I could have an MP3 of it - but a week later I also sought out a digital copy of the live version.  

Would have bought that too- if it was available at digital retail.  But sadly no, and this after almost 3 weeks of theoretical exclusivity since the Record Store event weekend. 

Just now, I also went searching for the aforementioned Beatles FAAB MP3.  Not available at digital retail.

This brings me to an issue I have with those lamenting the downfall of physical music retail.  Beyond the transaction, digital and physical music retail represent mutually exclusive experiences for the music fan.  Physical retail is place to discover music.  Browsing the racks, observing a cascade of album covers, ears open to the in-store programming.  This is something digital retail can never offer. 

Digital retail is an access point to content.  Anything you need, available immediately to load to whatever is your preferred device.  (There was a degree of selectivity to Apple’s store programming at first but this has given way to algorithm store placement based on sales over time.)  Thumbnails, genre pages and “based on if you like” will never replace wandering the aisles of Amoeba, or Newbury, Sound Garden in Baltimore, any of the classics.  

Someone needs to figure out how the two can exist as complements to one another.  The music I “found” at Amoeba - David Gray live track and a Beatles recording I had all but lost since the ’90s - I would gladly have paid Apple or Amazon for.  Someone either decided that they needed to be “exclusive” to indie retail or just overlooked the need to deliver to digital partners.  People are creating demand by accident and not bothering to supply on the other end. 

In the meantime I’ll just grab it for free and upload to my new Amazon Cloud.

Enjoy!

Visited CBS Television City on Fairfax and Beverly in LA, aka “the grid.” 

Saw the following: 

- Map of “the grid” from 1950, which includes the original baseball stadium where TV City is now plus early and completely intact Park La Brea

- Reels of a classic Twilight Zone episode, just sitting around in the hallway! 

- Heliport, sets for Young and the Restless and The Price is Right 

Also learned the story of the man who memorized the value every prize in the last ten years of showcase showdown, know they repeated prizes, and came on the show to throw down an exact bid.  The show has since updated their prizing system. 

Read KROQ’s take here and watch the full show below.  Alongside some of my dearest friends and family, it was an amazing way to close out a crazy and unforgettable week in the big city.

7 months in the making. 10 directors, 59 minutes, one dojo.  Movie complement to the new album released today, as seen on www.Youtube.com (with a special greeting video from singer and chief producer of the film, Tunde Adebimpe).

Screened for the first time last night in NYC at the Sunshine Theatre for a standing room only crowd consisting of friends and family, press, a few guests and a lucky few who bought tickets with the album on Gilt City.

Poster below.  It comes with the fan deluxe on www.tvontheradio.com

Please enjoy the movie in its entirety. New album is out today.